Group 2

New leaves of Spring 17/04/24

It was great to get out to the dene when it was not raining! It meant that there were tracks in the mud. We spotted the usual dog and horse but we also found a deer print which was really cool.

When we got to the Forest School area we had a game of camouflage. It was great to see the children take control of this game and begin to play it themselves. Whilst I put out some hammocks the children played a game with the monster hats. It looked a very fast game to play.

I set out the tools so that children could craft, others wanted to play in the hammocks but the slope and a rope was still popular. I am surprised as the hammock were new out today and some children have used the slope for adventures every single week.

We had our snacks and drink. Since it was the last week I thought we could go on an extra adventure to the really huge slope. On the way up, we heard the young of a buzzard calling out to be fed. The parents were about but were getting mobbed by the smaller birds who don’t like the buzzards being about. The slope was great fun but is very big so we could only get a few goes on it each before it was time to come back to school.

Worms and Rain Sticks 27/03/24

I feel sorry for this group as we have had not had one Forest School session that has not had some rain in it. This time the rain brought out a whole load of worms out to say hello. Unfortunately, they had decided to explore the MUGA and path to the outside room. We spent the first 10 minutes of our session putting the worms back onto the grass.

We slipped and slid our way through the mud and puddles to the Forest School site. The stream was in full spate which is always worth having a look at. If it ever stops raining for a bit we might get around to clearing the debris that has built up over our winter of storms.

Whilst I put up a shelter the children played ‘Oogah Boogah’, now a favourite from last week. When everybody had a turn, we sat under the shelter. I showed the children how to use a bow saw and the wood scrapers safely so that we might be able to make some magic rain sticks to try and have a dry day! Whilst some children wanted to make some interesting sticks others wanted to play on the slope with a rope.

Amazingly the sun came out for our quite time so the children were able to sit in the sun for our reflection time. I don’t know how but somehow, we only just made it back in time for lunch – where does the time go to?

A Trip into the Past 20/03/24

I was quite excited yesterday, it almost seemed to stop raining for a while. Today it was back to it so another lovely damp day. We walked down to the dean and enjoyed the sites. We found a snail tree, what looked like pony twins and some lovely heart shaped Ivy leaves.

When we got to the Forest School site we played a new game where the oak trees were den and those who wore the monster hats were ‘on’. That meant a lot of running around so we changed the game a bit so that there was also a baddy base to put captured children in. It was good fun.

I had said we would do more crafting today but it really was a damp day and I think we would have got quite cold in the wet so we set off for an adventure to find the ‘Devil’s Chair’. It is a local land mark in the dene that has quite a good story attached to the naming of it. To make the walk more interesting we played some games along the way. When we got there, we tried to go up to the rocks but it was super slippy in the mud so we went back to where we had left the trolley for some refreshments.

Of course, it started to rain more heavily but with little time left we had to make an emergency shelter with a tarp which we used to keep dry whilst we had a drink and a snack. Fingers cross that we can have one dry session this term.

Mud, Mud Glorious Mud 06/03/24

I didn’t think it was actually raining but the way I was getting wet might attest to a different perspective. We took a lot of tarpaulins just in case.

We had a very interesting walk down because of the weather I thought it might be easy to collect some snail pets. I think it must be still too cold for them to be out as we didn’t find any although we did spot some woodlice. We said hello to the horses but I think they must have been feeling the weather since they did not want to come across to meet us. We did find some cool fungus that we had not seen before I call it Penny fungus as the fruiting body form flat round shapes. I think some other people might call it white crust fungus.

When we got into the dene we found that there were quite a few saplings that had fallen down. We collected some of the fallen branches and practiced different ways to break them up. We managed to get them all into manageable sticks even the very thick ones. We took these to our Forest School site and got to work putting up shelters to protect us from the weather. It was great to see how well the children worked together and I thought the results were great. They were certainly good enough to have a drink and snack in and keep dry.

The weather cleared a bit so we set up the rope on the slope. I had hoped to make some story sticks but the children were enjoying the slope so much we continued with that until it was time to pack up and have our quite time amongst the trees. It was lovely to stop and as it was not raining any more the birds were especially vocal. What a lovely end to our Forest School session.

Welcome to Forest School 28/02/24

It was lovely to welcome back the last group from year 2. I was surprised by the things that they had remembered from last year. Just to be sure we went over the three rules of Forest School and practiced doing dog angels.

I did not know how much this group would love meeting the horses but it proved very popular and the horses were very patient with us. They got a lot of tickles and pats so I think they were happy.

We had fun exploring the old badger’s set it is still empty – well I could not see anything down the hole. We then had fun finding the shortcut back to Mrs. Heslop. It meant having to tackle a big slope it was great to run or roll down it.

When we got to the Forest School site we set up our camp and played ‘camouflage’ a type of hide and seek game. It is a good game to play as it establishes the limits of where the children can go to in the dene. After that we set up the hammocks and a rope for some fun on the slope.

We had time for a hot drink and a snack before we found a quite space to sit in and listen to the sounds of the woods for five minutes. It was then a march back to school to have lunch.